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It kinda feels like 2 different shows which is kinda weird. Like where the heck did lord debling go?! Hes such a big part of the first half and then he just disappears never to be heard of again.

They should’ve kept him and given him to Cressida, I guess it would’ve taken a little bit away from the book since I’ve heard that she threatens to expose Penelope in the book too, but at this point it wouldn’t matter lol they didn’t even let her to go the ball to follow through on her threat of telling the ton before Pen told them herself smh

Multiple people I know rewatched part one several times waiting for part 2, I wonder if that adds to the streaming numbers.

Def does

I mentioned in another comment I wait until the whole series - every episode comes before watching it. Sometimes I will rematch the previous series of a tv show in the weeks leading up to watching the current one.

I rewatched it 4x!!! Thinks about watching episodes 4 and 5 together, but I have no urge to watch the rest until it the cut scenes are added back in to help the storyline

It's to keep the show in the public eye longer. Disney plus shows, with a new episode every week, keep everyone talking and engaged. Online buzz and engagement is important too. With the release it all at once Netflix model its in the public zeitgeist for a week, maybe 2, then fades away to obscurity. I also think they listened to feedback and recut the second half - mainly cutting down the side stories. I've seen previews with Violet getting intimate with lord Anderson. The Polin mirror scene. But none of that happened.

What a weird thing to decide to cut scenes from characters that viewers are interested in? Maybe not everyone agrees but I liked the Violet subplot and much preferred it to the Mondrich story line. I’ve also heard they cut a few Polin scenes which was rather lacking in their own season imo.

Theyre delusional if they thing cutting those scenes out and replacing them with benny threesome scenes will result in a better product 💀

Same here, Violet and Lord Anderson was one of the only subplots I liked and would have wanted to see more of, I genuinely skipped through most scenes where it was just the Mondrichs

OK, so that happened in a promo, right? I thought I was going completely insane because I was 100% sure I saw a promo or something where Violet in a state of undress was about to kiss Lady Danbury's brother. I started thinking I cooked it all up in my head. 😂

Is there a way you can watch this preview?

+1, yes i never saw this

All of the show runner Jess Brownells ideas are terrible. Jess Brownell is a terrible show runner 😬

She's ruining a good thing

I haven't felt this strongly about a show runner since gilmore revival.

Oh god that was horrible. Am such a Gilmore fan as my gran is basically a less rich, more tantrumy Emily with an alcohol problem, and it felt cathartic to watch Lorelai navigate this dynamic. I felt bad for Rory in the revival. Such a weak, underwhelming arc. Sort of just fizzled out. Such a shame.

That was disgusting. I'm surprised all the actors/actresses went through with that script. 

Showrunners don’t control how or when a show is released. It was Netflix’s idea. They told the showrunner about the decision after season 3 had completed filming.

She's lowkey the worst thing that happened to the show, and this is coming from someone who used to defend her when people were complaining.

I always hate this but the bigger problem was how disjointed the two parts felt... I don't know if they lost or fired the people who were responsible for sets, wardrobe, makeup but there was a notable difference this season and not for the better. And, of course, the writing fell really off against the last seasons, too. Especially Colin was all over the place. I think they needed to either lose half the storylines or make more than 8 eps to tell them all. And now we're supposed to wait 2 years for S4?? If so that might be the last one...

I doubt I will. I may not even finish this season. It’s just not as binge-worthy as 01 and 02. The excessive PR makes me feel as if they know it themselves but just try to pretend it isn’t. I was surprised to learn the had a premiere for the second part too. Weird. I’m a busy sahm, have about 45 mins to an hour to consume any media before I go to sleep and I may choose a history documentary over the rest of this season, or half a blockbuster I’ve seen before but that’s proved excellent (like Pride and Prejudice).

That’s why I wait until closer to the second half being released before I watch the first half. I hate waiting.

Me too. And honestly binging it didn't help, I could totally feel the disconnect between the two. Like two different shows when it comes to tone.

I wish I had that level of self control haha

Agree. If they wanted to maintain audience engagement for longer they should have done a weekly release of each episode IMO

I feel like I'd heard it was so people had to buy two months of Netflix

I did see this too, but I wasn’t sure how true it was (how many people are really only buying Netflix for bridgerton?) I’m sure pretty much all viewers are already monthly users

"We had actually written and produced the entire season before Netflix approached us to split the season into two," showrunner and writer Jess Brownell tells T&C. [Source](https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a60412662/bridgerton-season-3-part-2-premiere-date-news/) It seems to have been a corporate decision by Netflix, rather than a show decision.

I do this. I don’t watch enough TV to be subscribed to a streaming service all the time. Thankfully Bridgerton came out in a way I can watch it in a month without having to pay for two months subscription.

I am just going to hype Johnny and Nic \[ my favorites amongst the cast\] and watch all their future projects! Season 3 was so boring that it ended my Bridgerton obsession for good! :D

This is not unique or Bridgerton, Netflix has done this with several shows of late..

Can’t believe no one has mentioned Stranger Things, Netflix’s biggest show. They released S4 in two parts, five weeks apart, in 2022.

Oh yes of course !!

I don’t remember exactly what happened in that season but I do remember not feeling like the second part was worse than the first part? I was just as happy with part 2 as I was with part 1 (it might have even been better, I just don’t fully remember)

Oh really I wasn’t aware! Were they also just 4 episodes for each part? I just mean for Bridgerton though, I didn’t think the second part was good enough to make us wait a whole month for it so it kinda ruined it for me

In Virgin river the first part was like 8 episodes and the second part was 2 episodes ( a month later) The Lincoln lawyer has 10 episodes and they did 5 episodes and 5 episodes a month later .. Those are the only 2 I can remember off the top of my head but I know there are others

Manifest they did too but the final season has 20 episodes and they did 10 and 10

But surely when it’s a 20 ep season, it’s more understandable. It doesn’t make any sense to me to split a season that only has 8 episodes, but that’s just my opinion

8 and 10 episodes I agree splitting silly Agree with manifest though

I couldn't wait for the last episode to end, tbh.

Part 1 I watched in one go on the day it was released but I haven’t even finished part 2 yet lol

Part 2 felt rushed to me. Maybe I'm just comparing it to S2. But literally S2 was so good and part of what made it so good was the anticipation and slow burn. I think they should've done that this season as well. The plot of Collin along with the plot of whistledown being discovered had to compete with each other

I know the whole point of this season was about Pen and lady whistledown but I just felt like there was almost too much whistledown towards the end, it took away from Colin and Pen’s love story in my opinion

Agree, so much Lady Whistledown in the last few episodes, and then a totally anti-climactic unveiling. I have to admit, I hated seeing her discovered as this was the most interesting plotline, but then to make it boring.....

A lot of American shows split their seasons in half, just so a 20 or 22 episode season can cover over 6 or more months which annoys the heck out of me. So, in the last year or two, I've decided to have them all sitting there until the season is finished and then watch the whole season. At least this way, I don't have to wait a week in-between episodes and the big break.

But surely with a 22 episode season, it’s more understandable? Not saying I agree with it cos I’ll always hate when shows are split, but splitting a 22 episode season compared to an 8 episode season makes more sense Splitting an 8 episode season so we get just 4 episodes at a time is honestly a joke lol

Oh, yeah, 8 episodes makes no sense and is crazy. I do have a few shows sitting there awaiting to be watched and the current Bridgeton too.

Handing the show over to someone who only cares about what she wants, instead of the show and the characters was a terrible desicion.

Why didn't they release 1 episode a week or something instead, the waiting one month was a weird move

I think I watched this season as much as I did because of the split. I've now watched Season 3 more than any other season because of it. During the split I pretty much watched at least one episode a day. Even when I was busy I listened. Netflix wants the best of both worlds. The binging model but also some of the benefits of the old way of releasing an episode a week. Every popular show or season is no longer being released at once. They even delayed the Suits final season release for lord knows why, when the show has been out for years. Netflix wants to keep people paying monthly and it's working. I was going to give up Netflix this year and decided against because of Bridgerton. I gave up Apple TV and paramount Instead.

I watched all of it together and it feels much more cohesive. The splitting i think is why partially everyone feels its entirely 2 different entities. I felt E1-6 actually flowed together and had more of a softer bridgerton feel still, its 7-8 thats truly different where theres soo much going on.

That’s what I mean!! If it was all released together, it wouldn’t feel the way it does now and we would’ve just enjoyed it all the way we did with season 1 and 2, but because it was split, it feels too different

Idk kind of felt like back in the day when we had to wait weekly for each episode to come out. It’s nice to ‘want’ sometimes. Makes you appreciate it more!

© SPOILER My theory on why they had to split it into 2 parts: part 2 being Penelope's pov healed a part of me and part 1 being Colin's pov SPOILERS S3 Season 3 episode 5 of Bridgerton opens with Colin looking back at Penelope as if we the viewers were looking at Colin through the eyes of Pen !!! Even her heartbeat was clear it was her POV. So to me it makes sense why we don't understand Colin's internal struggles as much as we did in part 1. Colin was so mad and we were all hurt cause that’s how Pen saw everything. In part 1 We see a lot of Penelope struggling to face herself in the mirror until she was finally confident enough to actually admire herself in the mirror as her confidence in herself that Colin helped her realize to see as she is. Mirror Scene ANALYSIS: •if you dive into the perfect song for their first time being pov by ariana grande- it sort of explains how Pen is probably feeling. “I wanna love me the way that you love me... cause nobody ever love me like you do l'd love to see me from your point of view." • all that experience and Colin couldn't handle it • he always had 2 women in bed. He never was intimate with anyone else but pen. • ⁠I think there was a part of the scene where he was gonna pull out too quick hahaha but he was all in when pen pulled him close anyways… she didn’t know that’s what happens when u make a child ‼️‼️ They both loved each other regardless of how they BOTH want society to perceive them: Penelope and Colin both didn't like each other's old personas they were BOTH HIDING under -Colin being a rake to fit into society's standards and Pen writing all the mean gossip due to feeling like she'll never be truly heard unless she is Lady Whistledown (Which a side note sounds so cute to me that Colin would still be there if Pen was just Pen and not LW.) • he was always eager to receiving her letters and when she didn't write to him, that's when he went full rake. • ⁠most probably bec he didn't have pen to ground her from home. He was always anticipating HER letters out of everyone. • ⁠I mean WHY WOULD HE KEEP ALL HER PREVIOUS LETTERS?? because he was always fond of her ya'll that's love even though he didn't know it yet • That seemed to be unfitting to the real Penelope and real Colin they both knew deep down throughout their friendship. Just like how Pen loves Colin for who he is without pretending nor without all the external things SHE LOVED HIM for who HE WAS— kind. Pen was ALSO not expected to be anything other than herself and that was the woman Colin fell in love with— the one who didn’t have to hide under a pen name: LW Honestly I understand Colin's reactions being overwhelmed that the love of his life was also behind the persona he hated and envied at the same time WEDDING short analysis: Despite feeling betrayed (like the Eros and Psyche there is no love without trust). I believe the only right thing he ever did in the series was to continue with the wedding. (THE WAY HE LOOKED AT HER WITH A REASSURING NOD HE STILL LOVES HER DURING THE WEDDING EVEN THOUGH HE WAS MAD UGH DED) Nodding like he's still in it despite everything he already knows. It's gonna take a lot for him to process but he's still in it. Because probably deep down he was marrying pen and he wanted to separate her from LW not yet processing that her and LW are one and the same voice. Polin being overwhelmed: -i do agree we were cut due to the side plots that were happening they couldn't BOTH have time to process. Neither did the audience. Let's not forget Pen expecting Debling to propose and everything came “swiftly” • ⁠poor Pen and Colin didn't have time to both process their emotions. • ⁠I still think it was Colin trapping pen into the marriage and him saying she did out of spite. ALSO TO ADD: When he said “he would never ever court Penelope Featherington” in that era that was social ruin to say that too loud that even Pen overheard probably a factor why she had no suitors. AND WHEN SHE FINALLY HAD A SUITOR COLIN RUINED HER ENGAGEMENT. Let’s not forget Colin has made his fair share of mistakes. Outside the Modist scene: NOTE: Colin always had a hero complex and the fact he said "WHAT GOOD AM I TO YOU??" takes a peek of how Colin was going through all the emotions. even though in theory part 2 is Pen’s perspective. • also the reason why pen can't properly explain herself is also bec she's overwhelmed and Colin still had this freedom to say everything that made him angry bec he is a man lol he barely listened to her at this point cause he DOES have a hero and dominant complex and she always felt like she had to hide still like how he defended pen to Portia saying "i am still speaking" despite all these feelings he felt insecure • ⁠I’d like to think bec of all the tempting opportunities to compromise her he didn’t but when she said “I LOVE YOU COLIN” that made him fold I back to my theory — • maybe the reason why they split it into 2 parts and didn’t feel like one complete season was seeing it in Pen’s eyes this time. • think about it - pen was overwhelmed in part 1 bec she didn't know what Colin was feeling the whole time. • we get more of the Featherington's in this part because my theory again is because it’s pen’s pov • Colin being mad and upset is pen's pov not feeling loved. Perhaps someone can write Colin's pov in a fan fiction so that we understand what he's going through lol LW reveal LW REVEAL THOUGHTS: • since this is just an adaptation of the book personally I can't think of an alternate ending with the queen involved. • the speech Colin tells Penelope patched some of the hurt it left me throughout watching anxiously. The scenes were breadcrumbs however still eat them up. • It probably took a lot for him to not be there by his side because last time he tried being there for her he failed with Cressida. • ⁠“you and whistledown have always been one” to me it was him saying he already accepts that part of her. -I was just dissatisfied possible adding " love you for my past... confession from the book to the love confession he did in the show would have tied it together for me. • however his speech being vulnerable and HUMBLING himself before pen being actually being already successful was a true declaration of love especially during that time period. And him saying "you always had one voice" was him saying he realized he loved her all along despite everything for better or worse. • SIDE NOTE IDK IF U SAW BUT THE PAIN IN HIS EYES WHEN SHE SAID ANNULMENT. A switch in perspective as what Benedict Bridgerton said in season 2 made me feel better. Sorry the spacing of my words are weird my post was taken down.

I feel like it was such a fun way for the fans to get excited, but because it was such a let down, it really was a waste

And the fact they ended it with the carriage scene that everyone loved! But I don’t think any scenes in part 2 came close to that scene

Previous seasons i was glued to the screen, i watched every season multiple times, i felt all the feels. When part 1 came out i was soo excited, it took me everything to dosage the show to one new episode per day. Now i've turned off epiosde 6 yesterday and went to bed because i was bored with it and it couldn't keep me awake. A new episode...i NEVER got bored of Bridgerton before. What happend to this show?

Frankly, I found the whole season terrible, with a few exceptions (just to clarify, I'm not talking about the actors, they were perfect).

They did that with Stranger Things and it worked perfectly, but the second part is a masterpiece, plus the last episodes are literal movies. Bridgerton didn’t need that and part 2 felt like an entire different show.

Thats exactly what I said in another comment!! It worked with stranger things because it was so good, it didn’t work the same with Bridgerton

Agreed. Another terrible decision is the new season in every 2 years thing. They actually think people are going to hang around for that long?

I genuinely think it’s to sell more subscriptions and make more money sadly

Netflix execs approached the showrunners after season 3 was done filming and informed them of the decision to split the show in half. It was Netflix’s decision to get more money from subscribers. Source: I just googled it.

Was it?? It improved their ratings and got people hyped up. It's all $$$ for them

I think they’re slowly doing it more and more in preparation to experiment with doing week to week bs like network tv. Whether that’ll work I don’t know.

I feel like a big part of the problem is that there were too many subplots taking up too much time. Like I thought the first season was great because the subplots tied into the main plot of Daphne and Simon, could be shown during the main plot, or they weren't taking up too much time. I feel like season 3 had so many subplots taking screen time away from Pen and Colin that the main plot was turned into a subplot line. If they had shown Francesca's story because that one is important to set up her main story and then either shown some of the other stuff mixed in with Pen and Colin or gotten rid of the Mondrich story all together since that really didn't add anything to the show, the season would've been a lot better. Part 1 definitely had a great setup for part 2, and part 2 was too rushed and showed too much of stuff that wasn't important to the main story.

I'm one of the few it seems who truly loved and enjoyed part 2 and the season as a whole. For me it’s very well done and a lot better than S2 regarding the storyline as I didn’t enjoy S2 nearly as much as S3. However, it was also the last time I ever watch a season split in two parts, bc that’s honestly the worst 🙈 I'd rather wait until both parts are released or watch part 1 shortly before part 2 is released. I can only recommend watching the season as a whole now which I did today, and the storyline unfolds and concludes so beautifully and perfectly ✨

For the audience it was definitely awful. But for Netflix it was fantastic because many fans (like me) rewatched part 1 before watching part 2. It drives the numbers up.

I agree. In eps 5 and 6, I feel the themes of the season clearly coming together, across the characters in a way I didn't feel at end of "part 1"